Stone Sour frontman: Show with Papa Roach one of best hard core rock shows ever

ERIC WOODS

Thursday

Jan 31, 2013 at 3:47 PM

Before naming the band's latest two-part concept release "House of Gold and Bones," Slipknot lead singer and Stone Sour frontman Corey Taylor looked to history for his inspiration.

That inspiration came from a book called "Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln" written by Doris Kearns Goodwin.

Stone Sour will be performing with Papa Roach 7 p.m. Saturday at the Lone Star Amphitheater.

In the book, Goodwin had added correspondence between Mary Lincoln and one of her friends where she had referred to her husband as being made of gold and bones. Taylor said the language of the description had stuck with him.

Taylor, who is an avid reader of history, used the title for a track that had the potential of being on Stone Sour's third studio album "Audio Secrecy," but the track was scratched. Taylor kept the title and later tagged his short story with the name. That short story is the basis for the two-part concept album. The first album was released via Roadrunner Records in October 2012 and Part Two is scheduled for a spring release.

But the project doesn't end with the short story and the two-album release. The ambitious effort also will include a four-part comic book offering written by Taylor and released by Dark Horse Comics. The reason the projects are being released separately has a great deal to do with affordability. The staggered releases also have some artistic reasons behind them, as well.

"We found ourselves with this massive project, you know, not only trying to make a double album but also with this short story that ran between the two," Taylor said. "It just made sense honestly to split everything up. From a creative standpoint, we could do so much more with the artwork and the packaging.

"On the practical side, we didn't want to price the fans out of being able to afford it," Taylor added. "I know a lot of people buy single songs and whatnot on iTunes, but we also wanted to cater to people who like to buy full albums. It really just kind of made sense at the end of the day."

Both albums were recorded simultaneously at Sound Farm Studios in Iowa and produced by Dave Bottrill. Taylor said recording both albums at the same time was sometimes grueling, but the producer made sure enough time was devoted to each song to make them stand out.

So what exactly is behind the concept of the story and the album?

"When you strip away the science fiction and the fantasy of it, it's essentially a story of a man having to make that choice in his life," Taylor said. "It's a choice we all make. We all make several of them at different stages in our lives. It's about who do I want to be for the rest of my life or at least at that moment, or that period of time. It's about a man who basically finds himself in a strange land, you know, this very crazy, strange world. He has to figure out who he is as a person, or who he wants to be as a person.

"A lot of us kind of run from that choice," Taylor added. "We tend to just want to let things stay the way they are, but that's not how life is. It's not essentially about growing up, but just becoming the person we were meant to be, you know, the stronger person, the wiser person, and that's essentially what this story is about."

When asked about his own personal life choices, and what he would have done differently if music had not been an option for him, Taylor said he would more than likely be teaching history or writing.

"The funny thing is that I also wanted to be a teacher when I was younger so I would probably be working on my patience," Taylor said and laughed. "That's one of the reasons why I didn't stick with academics to begin with. I would also still probably be writing."

As for the local performance with Papa Roach, Taylor said to expect a lot of new stage dressings and to expect one of the best hard core rock shows ever.

"We pride ourselves on being one of the best live bands on the planet," Taylor said. "We just did a run in Europe with Papa Roach, and it was probably one of the most fun tours we've ever had. To be able to bring that tour over here for America, we are we looking forward to it, and we can't wait."

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